When This Celebrity Left Jimmy Kimmel Speechless by Confronting Him About Ignored Invite On Air

Entertainment mogul Tyler Perry once made waves on Jimmy Kimmel Live by confronting the late-night host about a prominent oversight. During the actor’s appearance, Perry called out Jimmy Kimmel for skipping the grand opening of his studio in Atlanta, in the Fall of 2019. As the interview commenced, Kimmel recalled, "Last time you were here, I don't know if you remember…was right after you'd opened your big studio in Atlanta."

Perry was quick to address the elephant in the room. He remarked, "Yeah, you didn't come to my big party. You got an invitation that you didn't come to. That one. I remember. I'm still scarred by it. And you said you'd send me a gift, and I still don't have the gift. So where's the gift? You didn't come, you didn't send the gift."

Caught off guard, Kimmel claimed the COVID-19 pandemic was the reason for his absence. He said, "I figured it must have been intended for Jimmy Fallon or something. I was thinking, like, 'Well why would I be invited to your party?'" To which Perry replied, "Well, it said Jimmy Kimmel, and I did a special video to you saying please come, So I don't know how you could have gotten that mistaken." Kimmel responded, "I apologize for that. I don't know what I was doing. Oh COVID-19, I think COVID-19 maybe was happening," as reported by Too Fab.

As per People magazine, to make amends, Kimmel quickly orchestrated a light-hearted gesture by sending his sidekick, Guillermo, to fetch a couple of impromptu gifts. Guillermo returned with a ‘Best Dad’ Oscar Award and a Hollywood magnet, much to Perry’s amusement. Perry remarked, "This is perfect. You are forgiven, you made up for it." 

Perry's Atlanta studio made history for being the first one to be solely owned by an African American. The 330-acre space, formerly a Confederate Army base, boasts 12 sound stages named after Black entertainment icons and has hosted an array of high-profile celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, and Whoopi Goldberg.

Perry’s plans for the studio extend beyond its current scope, with ambitions to expand into an entertainment district accessible to the public. During his conversation with Kimmel, he gushed about the studio. "It's 330 acres and I just bought 37 acres in front for an entertainment district so I am pretty excited about that." However, recently he paused the $800m expansion of his studio complex after the release of OpenAI’s video generator Sora.

He remarked, “All of that is currently and indefinitely on hold because of Sora (AI) and what I’m seeing. I had gotten word over the last year or so that this was coming, but I had no idea until I saw recently the demonstrations of what it’s able to do. It’s shocking to me...I can sit in an office and do this with a computer, which is shocking to me...I am very, very concerned that in the future, a lot of jobs are going to be lost. I feel that very strongly...It can’t be one union fighting every contract every two or three years. I think that it has to be everybody, all involved in how we protect the future of our industry because it is changing rapidly, right before our eyes."